Marlin Strike
by Paul Pines
He breaks
the surface a splinter of buried light
tail-walks the water
dives back
runs/ tugs/ stops/ circles/ approaches
runs again.
He and I.
We speak through the line.
He tells me how much he wants to live
rejoices in his power
before tiring
then comes willingly along
our starboard side.
Caleb “wires him”
holds him close
talking softly
strokes his bill
removes the hook
swims him until
his color
returns
deep purple stripes
and his gills
move again
serene
The fish bites down twice
gently on Caleb’s hand — signals
he’s ready to go
we gaze into
the perfect roundness of his eye
and watch the boundary
between us
dissolve
glimpse
in that great wink of eternity
the Divine Child
watch him swim
away
the unconscious
conscious of
itself
Old Man Pan
by Paul Pines
We anchor close to Peter Pulitzer
on his reconditioned
Louisiana shrimp trawler
The Sea Hunter
a man who marries girls
that leave him
a weathered man
at seventy-eight
who hunts
and skins wild goats
on Crooked Island
a goat of a man
on a floating piece of tin
the Croesus
of goats
waves sinewy arms
at us
from the stern
of the tender
he steers
between our boats
to ask Captain Brad
which lures
are best
for marlin
his leathery hands
reach up
to shake ours
(so far away
from West Palm Beach)
cool eyes and white teeth
one can’t help but think
bread and circuses
a floating dissonance
becalmed grief
a mummified
Phoenician
with pearls
for eyes
2 a.m. in the Grand Hotel Leveque
by Danny Caine
44 screams each other in a language.
45 awakes naked and cannot asleep again.
42 reaches to phone neuf un un then hand retreats.
46 sures 43 called the desk.
43 sures 46 called the desk.
41 flinches every slam.
On 36’s turnedup TV Gerard Depardieus to Russia.
31 lights the room and stares the armoire.
34 spits on the iron.
33 peepholes 37’s soon return.
32 erases the same sentence twice.
15 is empty. So is 17.
And has anyone seen 27?
22 Advils.
23 adapters.
24 reads a book in a different language.
21 pines to home.
25 fucks in no words.
I Love You Detroit
by Danny Caine
I Love You Detroit
for Dan Gilbert
I love you Detroit
People Mover because you don’t give
a fuck you just give rides
to people like me, bloated
with Saganaki dragging on escalators
through casino clatter to find
a monorail of all things waiting
to go on a three mile clockwise loop
of the theaters and parking garages
and a parking garage that was once
a theater. Halfway through the Renaissance
Center clears its throat and asks me:
When did people begin imagining
automated trains or international airports,
or automated trains inside international airports
or a train that goes nowhere and costs
$4 per rider mile in a city choking
on its own bones?
Ride, the Ren Cen tells me. Ride
and I glide through her shadow thinking
something in Detroit must keep moving.